Donations

Dear Canadian public! We have a couple of suggestions if you would like to help us with your donation:

1. Fili Forest

On the 35th anniversary of the foundation of the Children?s Philharmonia we planted over 16.000 seedlings on the deforested hill-sides of the mountain. We would like to continue this activity. To do this first we need to build a fir nursery. To be able to produce the needed number of seedlings for our planting activities, for this nursery, according to our calculations we need to buy a 30-40 ares (3-4 roods, 300-400 m2) sized land near our school, surrounded with fences and irrigation equipment. We planned to name it Ontario Tree Garden and we will let our visitors know by placing signs with this name. The daily nursing and farming activities will be carried out by the members of the ensemble; the planted forest will be named Fili Forest. Our results will be published on our website, www.fili.ro

2. Founded in 1303

Our settlement has a rich history; it is more than 700 years old (it dates back to 1303). Preserving our ancestral cultural landscape is a priority for the Children?s Philharmonia. Tourists, pilgrims, visiting friends are always interested and looking for this typical old image. We plan to restore szekler gates and old houses to increase their value, save them from depravation and preserve them for posterity. The owners are mostly elderly, wretched, unfortunate people, who cannot manage this from their own resources. Be a part of this process, help us preserve and maintain the traditional image of our village.

3. Support the Gifted

Many members of the Children?s Philharmonia are talented musicians or singers. You can observe this on our Ontario 150 concerts. But what will happen with them? We?d love it, if students from Szentegyházasfalu could continue their studies, if they would finish high school, even go to college and use their abilities in Transylvania as musicians, entrepreneurs or in tourism. But because their family?s wages are often slightly above the subsistence level, contributing financially to their education through our foundation could make a huge difference.

We are a minority in Romania, but in Szeklerland (a part of Transylvania) Hungarians from a regional majority. Thus our problem: children have difficulties with the Romanian language and score low on final exams. To improve their language skills we would like to establish a twinning with the mostly assimilated ?csango? communities from Bacau County. We have organized a camp for this summer, where we would place our szekler children who barely speak Romanian in csango families, who barely speak Hungarian. The camp?s main attraction is a visit to the Black Sea. Sponsors welcome!

Your donation is welcome in cash or you can transfer it to one of the attached bank accounts. One of them is the Romanian account of our foundation; the other account belongs to our twin-foundation from Hungary. Both of them are opened at OTP Bank.

Bank account numbers:

Fundatia Filarmonica de Copii - BCR - Ag. Vlahita, ROMANIA

SWIFT: RNCB RO BU

USD - RO65RNCB0158015356040019

It would be a unique experience for us, if Canadian student, their parents ? our sponsors ? would visit us back home, in Szentegyházasfalu. We can provide you million-star-comfort. You can plant on the sides of the Harghita Mountain, dig around fir seedlings in the Ontario Tree Garden and chop firewood for old ladies. You can also talk with gifted college student from the Fili?. in Romanian. You are most welcome.

The Children's Philharmonia was founded over 30 years ago comprising talented pupils of the Szentegyhaza (Vlahita) primary school. They received their name in 1983, while the Philharmonia?s actual birthday is dated one year before it got its name, when Sandor Haaz taught the school choir and pupils on instruments fours songs, which they performed together. This performance was such a great success with numerous positive responses that a continuation was self-evident. The band counts 140 pupils, composed of the choir (100 children) dressed in traditional szekler clothing and the wind and string instrument orchestra.

Szentegyhaza does not inherit a music school and instrument lessons are held by the Musik Teatcher Sandor Haaz and most recently by his former students at the local House of Students. Since the 90s They perform regularly in Transylvanian towns and cities and tour abroad every summer. Three busses makes their travels possible and housing is assured by local exchange contacts. While on tour, the children, wearing the Philharmonia insignia and uniform, conduct a travel diary. Instruments are largely financed by parents but the Philharmonia owns a large collection of instruments as well, which are also loaned to the children.

The repertoire consists of short classic pieces, unique interpretations of folk songs, historical songs as well as pieces from foreign cultures. In December 2003 Sandor Haaz and the Philharmonia were awarded the "Hungarian Heritage Award". Two foundations and its local touristic business support the "Fili" financially. On invitation of the president of the Belgian parliament the Philharmonia traveled to Brussels 2011. On this occasion they performed in the 'St. Michel et Gudule' cathedral and three other enthronment churches in Vienna and Bratislava.

On the referral of the Hungarian Foreign Minister the Philharmonia represented the Carpathian Basin Hungarians on June 4th 2013 on the day of National Solidarity. On this occasion they performed in the Parlament Building Budapest in the cupola hall in front of invited government officials, diplomatic representatives and other public dignitaries.

On invitation of the Hungarian Embassy in Bern the Philharmonia embarks once again on a European tour with three performances in Switzerland: